


a place to unpack

by jaqhad (kyrilu)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Fluff, Gift Giving, M/M, Pre-Slash, Pre-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:00:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22608922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrilu/pseuds/jaqhad
Summary: It felt like rebellion.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 17
Kudos: 49
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	a place to unpack

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Confection](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Confection/gifts).



> > Finn rummaged around under his bunk and pulled out a bag. “I don’t need an hour. I’m ready to go.”
>> 
>> Poe shook his head, amused. “Do you stay packed like that?”
>> 
>> Finn paused before he answered. “Force of habit, I guess,” he said, voice somber. “Never had a home before, and it wasn’t unusual to get reassigned. You always had to be ready to leave a place. To leave your friends.”
> 
> - _Resistance Reborn_ , Rebecca Roanhorse 

It felt like rebellion: Adding new things to his satchel.

In the First Order, you were supposed to carry the standard-issue supplies--blaster cartridges, medpac, ration packets, commlinks, extra underclothing--and FN-2187 found himself packing and repacking it.

“Always be aware of the things you carry,” Captain Cardinal had told the young cadets on the _Absolution._ “Your equipment and the way you choose to use them affects the success of your mission.”

FN-2187 never really strayed from the essentials, but he wasn’t entirely innocent. FN-3761 got easily bored and collected his squadmates’ discarded ration wrappings, folding the crinkly shiny material into elaborate shapes. He gave FN-2187 a tiny makeshift TIE fighter, which FN-2187 kept until his pack got soaked during a routine escort mission on Arkanis and he had to throw it all out.

In the Resistance, Finn found himself accumulating… stuff. It helped that there wasn’t anyone hovering over him, monitoring him for contraband.

He had bags of food scraps to toss the porgs to keep them from gnawing on the _Millennium Falcon_ ’s wires. He had the Alliance starbird pin he had found on Crait. He had a knitted scarf that Vi Moradi had given him after the mission on Batuu, after he off-handedly bemoaned the windy weather on Pacara, the location of their base at the time. He had a datapad that was full of books and comics, which he flipped through when he managed to find the downtime, which wasn’t very often.

“You’d be a top-notch pathfinder,” Poe told him, as Finn dug through his satchel and handed him the scarf. They were making their way toward a Resistance outpost on a remote ice moon, and the climate was a startling adjustment from Ajan Kloss.

“Pathfinding?” Finn asked. “That’s just traveling through tough terrain, isn’t it?” 

“My dad was one during the last war,” Poe said, slipping the scarf around his neck. “When I was a kid, he even took me on camping trips on Yavin all the time.”

And as they walked toward the outpost, Poe told Finn: carrying a pack with food and a sleeping bag--tracking runyip prints in the dirt--sitting by a fire and listening to his father's stories about the Rebellion. 

They climbed mountains, Poe and his dad, but it was never exactly Poe’s thing. “Even on the highest peak,” Poe said, “I’d stare at the stars and wish I was flying up there in my ma's A-wing.” He punctuated the statement dramatically, gesturing toward the sky above, even though it was all foggy clouds here.

Finn snorted. “Space-crazy pilot.”

“Always,” Poe said, knocking his fist against Finn’s shoulder. “But, hey, it helps to be prepared. I’m sure if we get stranded on a planet somewhere, your pack will come in handy.” 

“Please don’t jinx this,” Finn warned, because it sounded just like the type of trouble that would happen to them. 

Thankfully, they reached the outpost, and traded information with the Resistance members there, sensitive data that they didn’t want to risk sending via the Resistance frequencies, which often were vulnerable to First Order slicers.

When Finn and Poe boarded the ship they had flown--an innocuous transport instead of X-wings or the _Falcon_ , to avoid First Order detection--Poe began taking off the scarf to return it, and Finn found himself saying--

“No, it’s alright. You can wear it.” 

There was a sharp surprise in Poe’s voice. “Isn’t this a gift from Vi? It’s yours--”

“I haven’t been wearing it lately,” Finn said, with a shrug. He remembered how Poe had let him keep his jacket and thought, well, wasn’t he returning the favor this way? He was wearing the jacket now, though with a thicker coat over it due to the ice moon’s weather, yet even then, it was a familiar reassuring weight, nothing like stormtrooper armor. 

Something flickered in Poe’s dark eyes, and he looked at Finn. Then, “Okay. Thanks, buddy.” He touched the scarf around his neck, then underneath, the silver chain--Finn knew that Poe wore a necklace of some sort, catching glimpses of it here and there, but he never knew what it actually was or what it meant.

Even in Ajan Kloss’ humidity, Finn persisted in wearing the jacket, the sleeves shorn off. He noticed that Poe wore the scarf often in the heat, too-- “Keeps the bugs from biting me,” Poe said, even though he was one of the lucky ones who usually had insect repellent, triumphantly winning it from other Resistance members during sabacc night.

Whatever the reasoning, Finn thought, _It suits him_.

It was one less thing to carry. He was waiting for the day he would finally unpack, but for now, that meant there was space for new things, new experiences: dried koyo fruit Poe had given him; copies of Rey’s translated Jedi books because the old stories were interesting, even though Finn was keenly aware he was no Jedi himself; a hydrospanner, since Finn was learning to fly ships and Rose was showing him the basic methods to fix them; a deck of worn pazaak cards that Snap Wexley had passed along to him…

Adding new things to his satchel felt like rebellion, but that was fine, because Finn was a rebel.


End file.
